Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c7.67.1

c7.67.1

Here the god Rudra, to whom this hymn is addressed, is described as wearing a nishka or golden chain or necklace. But be it noted that this nishka is called viśva-rūpa. What can viśva-rūpa mean? Does it signify ‘omniform’? If so, what is meant by saying that Rudra’s necklace was omniform? I am afraid this does not convey any good sense, and we must try to find out what could be the natural and proper sense of this term? Before, however, we can hope to arrive, at any rate, at a plausible solution, we must consider the question : how could the word nishka come to signify both ‘a currency’ and a ‘necklace’? Was there in the nature of things anything common which could make any one of these senses yield the other. A little reflection will tell you that this is possible only if we suppose that Nishka means not simply ‘a currency’ but ‘a coin,’ and that Nishka denoted a necklace because it consisted of Nishkas--the coins. The practice of making necklaces out of coins is prevalent almost all over India, and is by no means unknown, I am told, even in Bengal. In Mahārāṣṭra, I know, the poorer classes get a goldsmith to cast gold coins in imitation of certain Byzantine originals which they call *puṭalyā*, which are afterwards strung into a necklace which also is called *puṭalyā*. If such is the case to this day in Mahārāṣṭra, we can easily understand how ‘a gold coin’ and ‘a necklace’ can both be called *nishka*.